article thumbnail

When One Person’s High Performance Creates Resentment in Your Team

Harvard Business Review

As the Japanese proverb warns : “The nail that sticks up gets hammered down.” That’s partly because high performance is relative and based on social comparison. In communities with frequent interaction, opportunities for such comparison increase. Those who stay often flounder without peer support.

Team 15
article thumbnail

Make the Internet of Things More Human-Friendly

Harvard Business Review

By comparison, the standalone product design characteristic of many of early IoT consumer offerings leads to “component-dominant dynamics,” where a user’s ability to solve everyday problems by imaginatively connecting a number of elements is prevented by design. So, what might a “handy” IoT offering look like?

Hammer 10
Insiders

Sign Up for our Newsletter

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

article thumbnail

The Case Against Competing

Harvard Business Review

The observation “ comparisons are odious ” dates back at least to the 15th century (long enough for Shakespeare to work a comic riff noting they’re also “odorous”). But I would go one step further and suggest that avoiding competition is a condition, or more precisely, a frame of mind, that more should aspire to.

article thumbnail

How to Organize Seamless Business Trips in 2020

Strategy Driven

One of the perks of working in a large company, with several senior responsibilities, is that it’s often left to you to travel to different destinations in order to hammer out contracts, seal deals, check up on suppliers, or help with your distribution network.

Hotels 69
article thumbnail

Reflections on the Fabric of the Toyota Production System

Deming Institute

Pipp’s documentation of the striking difference in the assembly process within Toyota, by comparison to Ford, was to be found again in the early 1980s when teams from both Ford and General Motors began to routinely visit Toyota’s operations in Japan. . Figure 3 offers a side-by-side comparison of these models.

System 74
article thumbnail

The 5 Requirements of a Truly Innovative Company

Harvard Business Review

By comparison, think of the long strides many businesses have made in reengineering their supply chains, boosting product quality, and rolling out lean six sigma. In our experience, it can take several months for a company to hammer out its defini­tion of innovation. And it’s not just your company.